ACTION paying unionists as strike looms

[Buzz Killington]

ACT taxpayers are paying a small group of ACTION bus drivers more than $200,000 a year just to conduct trade union activities.

The deal, which has been in place ''forever'', was revealed yesterday as the bus operators' 600 drivers prepare to strike on Friday morning, leaving commuters in the dark over whether buses will run at all that day.

According to ACTION management, the four union delegates two each at the Tuggeranong and Belconnen bus depots spend two hours of each working day driving, and the remaining 7.5 hours on union activities on their full rate of pay of $29.60 per hour with the government-owned bus operator picking up the $214,000 annual bill.

ACTION management and the TWU both confirmed yesterday that the arrangement had been in place for as long as anyone could remember although the union disputes that the delegates only drive two hours a day with ACTION looking to renegotiate the deal during the current vexed round of enterprise bargaining talks.

Full Article: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/action-paying-unionists-as-strike-looms/1864620.aspx?storypage=0
Source: Canberra Times Online
Author: Noel Towell

[belcodriver]

More fucking lies about us in the Canberra Times. The delegates drive more like 3.5-4hrs a day.

[CNG]

don't the delegates just do one 300 route a day, thats what rob was telling me.

[belcodriver]

Not the Belconnen ones.

[Sir Pompously]

I noticed the Canberra Times has not published my comment. Basically stating that the article sounds like it was written by the ACT Government (Instead of a Newspaper) and we should be more worried about the money spent on vehicles which are restricted in their use, and touted as replacements for a much more versatile, where the salary for drivers who are union delegates are just a drop in the ocean compared.

[belcodriver]

Most of these beat ups in the Canberra Times this year were probably largely written on behalf of the lazy journalists by 20-something law graduates who suckholed their way far enough up the greasy pole of Young Labor to get a job as 3rd assistant photocopy boy/girl in Stanhope's office.

I've had the misfortune to meet a few of these types and they are pathetic slimy opportunists every fucking last one of them.